I have a news flash for you. None of us is getting any younger. Yet, we march through the years as if we will live forever.
It’s said the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. My birthday is Tuesday, and for the last few years, on every special date I celebrate, I do it by planting a tree. Remember the Royal Raindrops crabapples I planted last November? Okay, that wasn’t a holiday, but still. For Christmas, it was Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ (actually planted in January). Other plants include a southern magnolia for one anniversary and the maples planted for each of our children. The southern magnolia is thriving, and its lemony scented blossoms serenade me as I work in the garden in early summer. As for the maples, all died but one, and I’m sharing that because some experiments are not so successful.
Now, I’m wandering into evergreens.
This September, I thought about what I really wanted to see from our bedroom window, and I decided Cupressus arizonica var. glabra, Arizona cypress, would be best. In a bright, sunny and sandy spot in the side yard, it will glow.
I hope to see the cypress grow to its full glory, but if not, someone else will enjoy it at maturity and perhaps wonder who the gardener was that planted it. He or she will stand within its pendulous arms, touch those lacy blue branchlets while breathing in its evergreen scent. Perhaps, then he or she will look toward heaven with a smile.
At least, that’s what I like to think will happen, and in the meantime, I’ll continue to plant trees every chance I can. Annuals are like chocolate candy. Enjoyed for one season and then forgotten. Perennials are work horses, pulling the garden through the seasons, but trees, ah, they are the permanent fixtures of the landscape, the silent witnesses to our existence.
As Nelson Henderson said, “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, in whose shade you do not expect to sit.”
First: Happy Birthday! Although much of our gardens are ephemeral… some of what we plant is for the coming generations. I put in a couple oaks that I will not see come into maturity, but it makes me feel good when something like an oak is planted… just as I seem to mourn when such trees are cut down all too soon.
Your cypress looks promising… and delightful 🙂
What a thought-provoking post, Dee. “Silent witnesses to our existence” …wow. Makes me feel like I should be planting right now. Certainly an Arizona Cypress would be nicer than the cedars that plague us here.
I hope you and the Cypress will be around long enough to enjoy each other’s maturity. I really like this plant and try to push it on customers when they come in looking for Blue Spruce which behaves more like a cut flower here. Besides the color, I love the fragrance.
Have the happiest of birthdays.
Les, I have a blue spruce, and it is one unhappy puppy after the heat. If I can get it established (five years), it will be all right in Oklahoma. However, in your coastal plain, I think it wold be an expensive annual. You’re smart to try to get them to plant AZ cypress instead.
I feel cooler just looking at Blue Ice! I’m working on planting more trees.
I love those lacy delicate looking branchlets. I can almost smell them. Mmmmmm I hope you get to celebrate all this weekend and next week. Happy happy…
Great tradition. The words you wrote are so true, ” the silent witnesses to our existence.”
Happy early birthday!
Happy upcoming birthday. You’re still a Spring chicken, Dee. Old age is defined as fifteen years older than you are so you’ve got a long way to go.
Call it zone denial but we carry the Arizona cypress in our tree and shrub section at the garden center where I work . Customers are drawn to it immediately and despite my warning that one cold winter will finish it off they still buy it.
Planting trees for special occasions is a great idea. That Magnolia grandiflora has got to be the most beautiful tree in the world.
Hi Dee, I love that tradition. The cypress’s foliage is very very cool, and it’s nice you can look forward to enjoying it, along with many other lucky visitors for a long time 🙂
Dee, It’s a wonderful tree and its fragrance is very pleasant. Hmm! I could use more evergreens~now to find a spot for this one. Planting a tree for birthdays and anniversaries is a marvelous tradition. gail
I agree about trees. John’s Mum, who was 84 at the time, gave us a tree to plant in the front yard. She’s now 89 and the tree is doing well and so is she. It will outlive both her and us, but what a great legacy.
I love that sentiment about the trees. In front of the house I grew up in is a large scarlet oak tree, planted by my Dad 50 years ago. Every time I walk by that tree, I think of him. He probably never imagined how big that tree would get and how beautiful it would be.
You sure picked a good one. I delight in my Arizona cypress every time I see it. Like you, I planted it where I can enjoy it from indoors as well. They’re pretty fast growers in my experience. I think you’ll be around to see it mature. 😉
Pam, I think I will too, but you never know. None of us is promised a certain number of days on this earth.
Very wise – the girl and I were just talking about trees. She wants a treehouse, but we don’t have any good trees for a treehouse. I was telling her about the huge old oaks around the house where I grew up. She asked me to plant an oak. I told her I already did, but it might be big enough to build a treehouse in it when her children are of the age for a treehouse.
MMD, my kids also wanted a treehouse, and although we have some mature native trees, they wouldn’t work for it. Just one of the things we never got done. I wish I’d grown a tree which had low lateral branches for them to climb. The natives don’t have that. Maybe I’ll plant one for someone else’s children.